Blog - RA Business Advisors

More Australians are reporting tax cheats

February 6, 2020 By raadmin Leave a Comment

More and more individuals are willing to report phoenix, tax evasion or black economy activity. The Australian Taxation Office revealed a record-breaking 15,000 tip-offs to its Tax Integrity Centre in the first quarter of this financial year – that equates to about 230 tip-offs per day.

According to Peter Holt, ATO assistant commissioner, the main categories of tip-offs received were related to not declaring income, demanding cash from customers and paying workers “cash in hand”, not reporting sales and having a lifestyle that does not match income.

The community is aware of black economy activities and are willing to make a tip-off. People are getting irritated at people cheating the system to gain an unfair advantage, and they genuinely want to stop cheats. The black economy means the community is mi

ssing out on important public services such as schools, healthcare, and other infrastructure. Honest businesses are also disadvantaged, and the employees getting paid cash in hand are probably not getting full entitlements.

What happens after a tip-off?

The ATO crosschecks the information and assesses what action needs to be taken.
Privacy laws prevent the ATO from informing you of the outcome or progress of your complaint.
Investigation can run from a few days to years.

How do I submit a tip-off?

You can submit a tip-off by phoning the ATO’s black economy hotline on 1800 060 062 or completing a form on the ATO website or via the ATO app (“Contact Us” section). Make sure to include as much detail as possible. For more information, visit the ATO website.

Top tips to increase your customers in 2020

January 30, 2020 By raadmin

To effectively grow your business, increasing your customers is important. But it’s not easy, especially for small businesses not having a huge budget for promotions and advertising. We are here to guide you through 2 key ways to not only attract new buyers but also make your customers happier.

1, FOCUS ON EXISTING CUSTOMERS

Target your best customers with offers

Identify the customers who generate the most profit for your business or who have the most potential for additional sales. Actively engage with these customers to gain more sales. Find out how you can utilize the 80/20 rule in business.

Research what else you can sell

Conduct online surveys or ask customers directly to discover what other products or services they might be interested in. For example, if you own a convenience store, ask staff to informally question customers at your checkout and to take note of what else they would like to be able to buy. Add some of these suggestions to your product or service line.

Investigate creating a customer loyalty scheme

Building a loyalty system with points or loyalty cards is a great way to encourage more frequent purchases and track your customers’ buying habits with the data you collect. For example, if you run a winery, keep a record of your customers so each time they visit they can gather credit towards a free bottle of wine. This can also help identify sales opportunities.

Create a customer database to target offers

Collecting customer emails or addresses enables you to contact them with special offers, new items or useful information. For example, if you had your own taxi business, you could email discounted fares to customers at slower times of the year.

Train staff on ways to improve sales conversions

Ensure your business has friendly, helpful staff that are well trained to take advantage of converting enquiries into sales. Run in-house sales sessions or employ a sales consultant.

Offer incentives for your staff to sell more

Help your staff on-sell to existing customers by offering incentives. For example, if you operated an adventure tourism business with multiple activities you could offer bonuses for selling certain products or increasing the average sale. Learn to build a strong team and stay connected to your staff.

Build a community through social media

Start a Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter campaign (whichever is most relevant to your business) and talk about your business and its customers to increase the profile of your business and encourage additional purchases. Social media is growing rapidly and taking advantage of these platforms can really help grow your business. Creating and sharing content that adds value also helps building a community through social media.

Identify any cross sell opportunities

List the products or services your customers have previously bought and then match complementary items that you could sell to them. Contact them with offers. Always encourage customers to consider buying a higher net margin product or service.

Review your business plan

Go over your business plan to evaluate and update anything that’s recently changed. Check you’re still on track for your growth goals and make any necessary adjustments.

2, FIND NEW CUSTOMERS (WITHIN THE CURRENT MARKET)

Use direct marketing that gets results

Measure the response rates to each area of your direct marketing campaign, whether it be email advertising, direct mail, or online click-throughs. Invest more of your marketing budget into what gets results. For example, if you’re an electrician, consider doing a mail drop in your local area, advertising your services.

Find ways to generate word of mouth

Build up positive word of mouth referrals by getting testimonials from customers, encouraging regulars to refer their friends or family to your business, speaking at events, and networking inside chambers or business associations. For example, if you own a travel agency that offers escorted tours to Europe, get feedback from your customers and ask to use some of their quotes on your website.

Create exclusive offers

Create an introductory offer for new customers only. Sacrifice your regular profits to gain loyal customers that will buy again on a regular basis. Consider what the Australian Government’s business website has to say about finding new customers.

Increase your profile through online directories

To increase your online presence, list your business on the most popular online directories, such as Yelp or Google My Business listing. Alternatively, use these resources to uncover potential new customers (especially through industry directories).

Increase web traffic by improving your search engine optimisation (SEO)

SEO will help increase your website’s traffic leading to a growth in your customer base. Spend some time determining your site’s keywords and keyword phrases so it attracts the right traffic for your business.

Purchase search keywords to improve your online exposure

Consider paying for search engine marketing (SEM) so that when customers search for your business products your web address is more likely to come up than others. For example, if you’re a Lawyer catering to small businesses, you might find there’s a lot of competition so think about paying for an ad that appears on the first search page.

Use Instagram to display your business

Instagram allows you to visually tell the story of your business and its offerings through images. When potential customers like your product or service images (which can be linked to your other social media accounts), you might get an avalanche of views.

Create regular blogs

Keep your content fresh and updated by writing regular blogs about your business, your people, and successful case studies. Regular blog content can be important for increasing your SEO and driving traffic to your website.

Run demonstrations or workshops to educate clients

Run demonstrations, workshops or events to showcase your business to existing or new customers. For example, if you’re a martial arts instructor going it alone, create a series of workshops to show potential clients the skills and benefits of learning through you.

Network by joining business associations

Networking with like-minded business individuals is crucial to managing the right business contacts in your industry. Uncover potential customers by attending industry events.

Create a targeted marketing plan

Outline a specific marketing strategy that’s aimed at new customer segments. Then develop a precise advertising plan to build awareness and encourage purchases. For example, if you’re targeting truck drivers, create a billboard theme that plays on words and back that up with occasional radio adverts.

NEXT STEPS:

Stay tuned for more blogs that can help you manage and grow your small businesses! Check out some of our past blogs in the meantime:

New year resolutions for small businesses

Top 3 small business challenges and how to solve them

5 Powerful ways to improve your small business marketing

New year resolutions for small businesses

January 23, 2020 By raadmin

Happy new year! As 2020 begins, right now is a good time to reflect on your business’ progress over the last year and plan the year. Don’t forget to make New Year’s resolutions for your business to grow and reach new heights this year. Here are some resolutions that can be helpful for small businesses in 2020:

1, Give your business a financial health check

Many small businesses were hit by cash flow problems last year. To avoid the same fate, take a serious look at your business’ balance sheet and its profit and loss account. Consider whether you have sufficient headroom and is there anything you can do to improve? For example, do you need to spend more time chasing late payments, or could new financing facilities provide an answer?

2, Boost your marketing efforts

Marketing is always an important part of operating a business. Good marketing attracts customers, keep them loyal and encourage them to recommend your service/product to others. In other words, it raises company profits and reputation. If your company hasn’t focused on marketing, then you should do it now.

Customers are important – always do your research to see what they look for in a product/service. Keeping up with trends is also important to market your product/service better.

3, Make your customers happier

This year, why not talk to your customers and see what you can do to make them happier? Happy customers will keep coming back and refer to friends and family members to you. By listening to them and collecting feedback, you will know what you need to do better.

4, Stay updated with tax laws, regulations, and deadlines

Make sure to talk to your accountants to ensure that you are up-to-date with all tax laws and regulations that may affect your business. Ask them for filing deadlines and set up alerts and reminders for the year.

Action plan: Talk to our expert accountants today for advice! Give us a call or book a consultation on 07 3367 0852.

New Year, New Decade

January 16, 2020 By raadmin

Not only did we celebrate a new year a couple of weeks ago, but we welcomed a new decade. It is at this time we find ourselves not only reflecting on the year that has just been, we are also reflecting on the decade that has just gone.

At the beginning of the last decade, our office operated quite differently. Looking back at 2010, we were just beginning to implement Xero and our processes were drastically changing into electronic form. All our correspondence was via snail mail, email was used sporadically to converse with clients; and working away from our desk was next to impossible due to all our files & software being on a server which we could only use via ‘Remote Access’.

This last decade has drastically improved our processes. So much so, that we would not want to return to where we used to be. Now, we are very proud Gold Xero Partners, well and truly using and loving our beautiful accounting software, all our correspondence is via email allowing instantaneous contact between ourselves and our clients, and all our files and software are ‘in the clouds’ which allows us to work away from our desks easily, and in turn, improving our work/life balance.

Trying to imagine where we will be at the beginning of next decade is mind boggling, but exciting!

For many people a new decade brings with it an increased sense of ‘New Beginning’ and starting with a ‘Clean Slate’. In small business, often the break between Christmas and New Year allows us time to evaluate the past and consider how we can tackle the coming year with improved efficiencies. How can we make our business grow, be more successful and find a better work/life balance. Perhaps, if you haven’t made the jump yet, this is your year to improve your data processing and bookkeeping by jumping onto Xero. It will most definitely not be a change you regret! For those of you who do use Xero, perhaps there is an add-on which you have been considering implementing – this is the time to jump on board. While you are feeling refreshed to tackle the year ahead, get the ball rolling, it’s the best time to implement a change.

From all of us at RA Business Advisors, we wish you a very successful year ahead!!

Directors beware: Penalties for Unpaid Super

January 9, 2020 By raadmin

Company Directors can be held personally liable for a company’s unpaid employee superannuation.

Any unpaid superannuation is payable to the ATO after three months as a Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGC). The ATO can issue a Director Penalty Notice for unpaid GSC and the Company Director’s personal assets can be sold to pay for the debts in the penalty notice. In other words, Company Directors can be held personally liable for the company’s unpaid superannuation.

If a company fails to pay superannuation, but it lodges its SGC Statements by the SGC Statement due dates, the ATO can issue a Director Penalty Notice to the company’s directors. The Directors can become liable to the ATO for the amount of SGC claimed in the Director Penalty Notice. Directors can avoid personal liability if the SGC is paid by the company.

If a company fails to pay superannuation and it also fails to lodge SGC statements by the SGC Statement due dates, the Directors are automatically personally liable for unpaid superannuation. In these circumstances:

The ATO can estimate unpaid superannuation if it chooses
The ATO can and will issue a Director Penalty Notice to recover superannuation from the Directors
Placing the company in liquidation or voluntary administration will not avoid liability for the Directors
The ATO can and will issue Director Penalty Notice after a company is already in liquidation or voluntary administration

In May 2019, new legislation was passed to change the date upon which company directors become automatically liable for SGC amounts. The new date is the date which SGC Statements are due, which are:

Quarter	Period	Super Due for Payment	SGC Statement Due Date
1	1 July – 30 September	28 October	28 November
2	1 October – 31 December	28 February	28 February
3	1 January – 31 March	28 April	28 May
4	1 April – 30 June	28 July	28 Aug

If your company cannot pay superannuation, the best thing to do to avoid liability is to lodge SGC Statements within three months of them being due. If this is done, then you will be able to avoid liability under any Director Penalty Notice issued by placing your company in liquidation, if this is the best option available. The ATO will also not be able to issue you with a Director Penalty Notice after your company has been placed in liquidation.

But if your company is unable to pay superannuation within three months of it being due, then it probably has some underlying financial problems and you should see advice regarding the company’s circumstances, strategies which may be put in place and risks to you as a Director personally.

Contact our expert Accountants for assistance if you have any questions about this information or if you need help in working out what to do if you have unpaid superannuation in your company. Don’t leave this too late. If you do, then your personal assets will be at risk!

Christmas Party, Gifts and FBT: What you need to know.

December 19, 2019 By raadmin

‘Tis the season to be jolly!

Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) can be confusing, especially when there is no separate FBT category for Christmas parties. You may encounter different circumstances when providing these parties for your team and preparing gifts. We understand your struggles and have simplified things for you.

1, Christmas Parties and Gifts for staffs

If you are not a tax-exempt organisation and do not use the 50-50 split method for meal entertainment, the following explanations may help you determine whether there are FBT implications arising from a Christmas party.

Exempt Property Benefits:
The costs associated with Christmas parties (such as food and drink) are exempt from FBT if they are provided on a working day, on your business premises and consumed by current employees. These costs are an “Exempt Property Benefit”. The property benefit exemption is only available for employees.
Exempt Benefits – Minor Benefits:
The provision of a Christmas party to an employee may be a minor benefit and exempt if the cost of the party is less than $300 per employee and certain conditions are met. The benefit provided to an associate of the employee may also be a minor benefit and exempt if the cost of the party for each associate of an employee is less than $300. The threshold of less than $300 applies to each benefit provided, not to the total value of all associated benefits.
Gifts provided to employees at a Christmas party:
The giving of a gift to an employee at Christmas time may be a minor benefit that is an “exempt benefit” where the value of the gift is less than $300.

Where a Christmas gift is provided to an employee at a Christmas party, the benefits are associated benefits, but each benefit needs to be considered separately to determine if they are less than $300 in value. If both the Christmas party and the gift are less than $300 in value each and the other conditions of a minor benefit are met, they will both be exempt benefits.

2, How about Client gifts?

As the gift is an expense to your business, it is generally considered to be a tax deduction. The ATO has considered the act of gift making to clients, and several cases exist where the tax treatment has been tested in the courts. If there is an expectation that the gift will either generate future business from the client or motivate them to refer your services to others, it is considered that the expense of the gift was business promotion and is a tax deduction.

It should be noted that the gift does not constitute the provision of entertainment which is a non-taxable deduction.

If you are unsure about the FBT implications of your Christmas party or gifts, please contact our expert Accountants today, and they can assist you!

Top 3 small business challenges and how to solve them

November 28, 2019 By raadmin

1, Finding and approaching the right customers

This is the problem that many businesses face. Even big firms still spend a lot of time and energy coming up with strategies and plans to find and attract more customers every day. For small businesses, it might be more difficult considering the scale of operation and tight budgets. Having a great product or service is not enough to let customers find and trust your business. Your team must go out and actively look for potential customers using a variety of strategies.

No matter what your strategy is, it is crucial to consider who your ideal customers are. Mass targeting doesn’t work on a tight budget, so you need to be careful about targeting the right consumer. Get started by crafting buyer personas: what they do, where do they spend time online, what are their buying behaviors, etc.

Here is a persona template for you to get started:

2, Raising brand awareness

Brand awareness is extremely important for every business to grow. It represents how familiar your customers are with your brand and how well they recognize it. Raising brand awareness helps your customers remember your brand better, build trust over time and increase your company’s value. In other words, once your customer is aware of a brand, they start to recognize it, make a purchase, prefer it to other brands, and trust the brand more overtime. This means that they will be likely to make more purchases in the future and recommend the service/product to their friends and families as well.

Here are a few ideas to boost your brand awareness:

Offer freemium: Offering a free basic product/service line and only charging for products at the premium level is a very popular (and effective) strategy for software companies like Hubspot, Typeform or Hootsuite. This gives consumers a free chance to experience the product/service before purchasing, and the company will get free advertising when consumers use it.
Co-marketing: Partnering up with another company can help you get a better reputation and awareness outside of your circle. Unlike co-branding, co-marketing doesn’t involve releasing new products/services and are easier to plan, launch and manage. It provides a win-win situation for both companies to reach a wider market, learn more about customers and earn better attention.

3, Hiring talent

Hiring talented people remains one of the biggest challenges for businesses, according to the Conference Board Annual Survey. Hiring new people is a complex process that requires a lot of time and money. It is easy to just send out a job description, screen applicants, and make a decision. But how do you make sure that the candidate is the right one for the job?

To answer this question, companies can create a candidate persona, which is like the buyer persona described above, but for candidates. This persona should showcase the ideal traits and skills suitable for the job and align with the company culture. Finally, don’t forget to measure the results to better tailor your hiring strategies in the long term.

5 Powerful ways to improve your small business marketing

November 7, 2019 By raadmin

As a small business, we understand how other small businesses struggle with managing a budget for marketing strategies. A small budget doesn’t mean that you can’t get creative and succeed with your marketing campaigns. Our blog is here to guide you through some powerful tactics to utilize your marketing game and not spending too much money.

1, Profile your target market based on certain characteristics

Conducting research about your market is not enough, you need to identify your target audience and classify them into groups based on characteristics. Some common (and effective) ways to segment a market are:

Demographics (Age, gender, income, education, social status, occupation,…)
Geographics (City, country, living area,…)
Psychographics (Lifestyle, personality, attitude, values,…)
Behavioral (Benefits sought, purchase usage, intent, occasion,…)

It is also important to keep in mind that your target market should have a need for your product/ service and be willing to pay for your offer.

2, Create and share content that adds value

By publishing content that brings value to your audience, your brand will attract people and gain more audience overtime. You don’t even need to attempt to sell your products, sharing knowledge and value-added content is enough to give people a reason to follow and listen to the brand. Consider sharing content that is relevant to your business and your followers as well.

3, Level up your Google My Business profile game

You see Google ratings and business profiles everywhere, but did you optimize this yet? Filling out your Google My Business profile now to take a big step in local marketing. Make sure to include important keywords to optimize your SEO. Additionally, putting up some nice photos would improve your credibility.

4, Get listed in online directories

Getting on directories will drive traffic to your site and increase awareness. Depending on your industry and product/service, you will find different online directories that are suitable for your company. Many of them are free or have paid options but the basic one is usually free.

5, Leverage micro-influencer marketing

Micro influencers (those with small reaches) are often cheaper than highly regarded celebrities. Research has shown that these influencers usually communicate and engage with their audience more. In other words, they are perceived as trustworthy and influential among their followers. Working with them can form a strong community around your brand and build better awareness. For instance, you can easily use tools like TRIBE or Scrunch to connect with micro-influencers based on your product and desired audience.

How Much Documentation Do You Really Need For a Tax Return?

August 2, 2019 By raadmin

Tax time is one of the few times of the year where keeping an absurd amount of paper in your possession is socially acceptable. But while most of us can confide in our receipts to keep us safe navigating our tax return, receipts aren’t always enough – especially if you get audited by the ATO.

As one such Australian told the ABC some weeks ago, claims for $120,000 of self-education over three years lead to a full-scale audit. When asked to supply bank statements as well as receipts for their education, they were taken aback, but this is not an alien concept for audits from the ATO. Unfortunately for this person, they made mistakes in previous returns leading to a $24,000 debt – but this doesn’t have to be the case for you.

Jumping through various hoops to only get stung with a big debt is a pretty jarring experience and you are destined to learn some lessons going through that type of hardship. The number one lesson they learned?

Keep records and use a tax agent

The ability for tax agents to easily change previous years returns and to accommodate sudden changes in your financials makes keeping yourself safe during an audit much easier. Furthermore, keeping records needs to stop being an exclusively analog process. Scanning your receipts into software such as XERO or Dropbox not only frees up space in your pocket but makes it far easier to organise and recall receipts.

At the end of the day, if you have correctly worked out your claims so you aren’t claiming more than you should be and have your documentation in order, you have nothing to worry about. If you aren’t confident that you can correctly work out your deductions, take the stress away and contact a tax agent. We can help you get the most out of your tax return, give us a call today on 3367 0852 or email us through mail@raaccountants.com.au

Minimum Wage Increases, What They Mean For You

June 14, 2019 By raadmin

The Minimum Wage Panel on 30 May 2019 handed down its minimum wage decision for 2019.

From the first pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2019, the National Minimum Wage will increase to $740.80 per week, or $19.49 per hour.

What this means for you:

Employers who pay their employees at the National Minimum Wage or Modern Award rates of pay will need to apply the increase in the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2019;

Employers who currently pay above National Minimum Wage or Modern Award rates of pay are not obliged by this decision to increase their rates of pay, but need to ensure their rates remain at least as beneficial, once the increase is applied; and

Employers who pay under enterprise agreements must ensure that the base rates in those agreements remain at least equal to the new minimum Modern Award rates. If you pay any of your employees under annualised salary arrangements you will need to conduct an audit of those annualised salaries against the new Award rates and working patterns to ensure the annual salary compensates for award entitlements.

If you are an employee unsure of the award rates for your line of work, you can check out the award calculator HERE

Need Help?

If you need help with updating your pay systems for these new rates, don’t hesitate to contact our expert accountants!